Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture

Abstract

One of the main aims of game studies is to investigate to what extent and in what ways computer games are currently transforming the understanding of and the actual construction of personal and cultural identities. Computer games and other digital technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet seem to stimulate playful goals and to facilitate the construction of playful identities. This transformation advances the ludification of today's culture in the spirit of Johan Huizinga's homo ludens.